Roth, Carolla officially named

Keyser Soze · 10-27-2005, 10:43 PM

Infinity stations to adopt new format

BY RAFER GUZMÁN on Newsday.com

K-ROCK won't be the same without Howard Stern - in fact, it will be a whole new station.

Though it recently switched from alternative rock to classic rock, K-ROCK (WXRK/92.3 FM) is about to ditch music almost completely. Its owner, Infinity Broadcasting, announced yesterday that K-ROCK and eight other stations around the country are switching to a new, all-talk format called Free FM.

Starting Jan. 3, K-ROCK will play music only on weekends. What will happen to the current hosts is unclear.

The new format will focus on pop culture, sports, politics and lifestyles, and will target adults 18-49, particularly males, says Les Hollander, senior vice president and regional manager of Infinity. "There's a hole for FM talk and exclusive content in New York, and not only with the void that Howard is leaving," Hollander says. "There's clearly a market for this format."

The move comes as Infinity is preparing to face life without Stern, who will leave Dec. 16 to begin broadcasting on Sirius Satellite Radio in January. Stern's departure has been widely predicted to come as a blow to Infinity stations such as K-ROCK, which depend on Stern for high ratings. Stern's show airs on 27 Infinity stations.

Infinity announced yesterday that David Lee Roth, the swaggering front man for the 1980s hair-metal band Van Halen, will take over Stern's morning slot in New York and six other cities, confirming rumors that had been circulating for months.

The complete Free FM schedule isn't nailed down, but early signs point to an affinity with Comedy Central or Maxim magazine, and not only because of Roth. Jimmy Kimmel will be Infinity's creative consultant. Adam Carolla, a late-night host and a collaborator with Kimmel on Comedy Central's "Crank Yankers" and "The Man Show," will be the morning host in Los Angeles. The magician-comedian Penn Jillette is also getting a show. Some Infinity stations outside New York will feature morning hosts with proven track records of drawing male listeners. "'The Man Show' is not the model," Hollander says. "It just happens to be that Jimmy and Adam worked together on the show and were wildly successful."

Three Infinity stations now airing Stern will convert to the company's Jack format; the Houston station will air CNN Radio News.

Stern's departure probably isn't the only driving force behind the switch to all-talk, says Michael Harrison, publisher of the radio trade magazine Talkers. "Even if Stern were still around, they'd be considering doing this," he says. "There's been a tremendous interest on the part of operators to think about going talk on FM with music stations that might not be doing that well."

Just as music migrated away from AM stations and onto FM, it's now migrating to the Internet and iPods, Harrison predicts. "The future of FM music is far more perilous than the future of talk radio."

This isn't the first time Infinity has tried a mostly talk FM station. The onetime rock outlet WNEW/102.7 FM tried it from 1999 to 2003 with mixed results, ending in scandal after hosts Opie and Anthony detailed the sexual antics of a couple frolicking in St. Patrick's Cathedral. The station now airs classic dance music as Mix 102.7.

"We know more than we did about FM talk then," Hollander says. "We believe that there's a need for more exclusive content with the advent of technology. And with Howard leaving, there's an available audience there that we can corner."